This site is maintained by Zackery M. Heern, Assistant Professor of Middle East and Islamic studies at Idaho State University. Most of the content of the blog is related to the courses I teach, including Modern Iraq and Iran, Modern Middle East, Islam in the Modern World, and Middle Eastern History. Please feel free to follow the blog by entering your email below. You can also follow @zackeryheern on twitter.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The Baath Party,
Rise of Saddam Hussein, and the Iran-Iraq War

The Baath Party started as
proponent of Arab Socialism that had come to the forefront by Nasser in Egypt.
In 1968 the Baath party successfully overthrew the monarchy in Iraq. With
control over the country, the party used their influence to control Iraq in two
distinct areas; one with party members at high government positions and
military personnel. The other was influencing party decisions at the local
levels. Due to the system that was
established under the Baath Party this allowed for Saddam Hussein to take control,
manipulate his people, and launch the most destructive war of the late 20th
century.

Governmental and Political Structure of the Republic of
Iraq:

The Baath Party became the dominant
political party of Iraq following the coup of the monarchy in 1968. From here
in theory Iraq was to be a republic of party politics. In practice the country
became dominated by the Baath Party and this heavily influenced the political
decisions of the government.[1]

At the local party level, the party
introduced cells of three to seven members in each village to be the eyes and ears
of the party. These village members would report their findings to the
provincial level.[2] The
provincial level had twenty-one branches, eighteen for each province and three
branches for the capital of Baghdad. The union of the provincial level created the
party's congress from which elected the regional command. The regional command
at its head was the secretary general, who was the head of the Baath Party, and
the deputy secretary general, who was second in rank. The regional command had
the authority to be the top decision making body for the party. In theory, the
regional command was answerable to the party congress and would convene with
them over policies.[3]

At the national level was the
National Command. This group had representatives from all regional commands and
answered to the National Congress, it led the direction of the National Baath
Party. The National Command operated as the spokes group for the Baath Movement
to the outside world.[4]

In July 1968, the Revolutionary
Command Council was established as the decision making body for the state of
Iraq. In theory it differed slightly from the Baath Party structure, but in
reality the secretary general of the Baath Party was the head of the
Revolutionary Command Council. In 1977, the Baath Party regarded all members of
the Party Command as members of the Revolutionary Command Council, essentially
legitimizing the Baath Party as the only party of the state.[5]

Saddam Hussein's Rise to Power:

In the wake of the coup of the
monarchy in Iraq in 1968, the Baath Party emerged as the dominant political
group in Iraq. After Nasser's control of the Arab Socialist movement waned
following the defeat in the June 1967 War, this allowed the Baath Party to move
more freely. By 1968 the Baath Party created an inner circle of tribal ties to
lead the party. The most notable tribe was the Tikriti, a Sunni group from the
northwestern town of Tikrit. In the first Revolutionary Command Council, three
of the five members were Tikritis, one of them being Saddam Hussein.[6]

The leader of Iraq following the
coup in 1968 was Ahmad Hasa al Bakr. After an unsuccessful coup attempt by a
coalition of conservatives and military personnel less than two months into
Bakr's regime, he utilized this distraction to launch numerous purges against
his enemies. From 1968 to 1973 he orchestrated sham trials, executions,
assassinations, and intimidations to eliminate anyone suspected of challenging
the Baath Party or his rule.[7]

With Bakr as the head of the party,
Hussein maintained his position as the second in command. Both men worked
together to form strong bonds with the military which included Baathists and
non-Baathists. Hssein became known as a ruthless politician, maneuvering
himself to prevent political opponents from emerging. In 1969, Hussein became
the moving force for the party, while keeping Bakr in a more figurehead type
role.[8]

In 1973, after an unsuccessful coup
attempt, the Revolutionary Command Council amended the constitution giving the
president more powers. By 1977 the Baath Party was being exclusively led by
Bakr, Hussein, and General Adnan Khayer Allah Talfah, Hussein's brother-in-law.[9]
Also in 1977, due to Bakr's failing health, he started to rely much more
heavily on Hussein. Nearly all parts of the government and the Baath Party
reported directly to Hussein instead of Bakr. The following year, the Baath
Party created its own militia of 50,000 men. Bakr officially resigned his post
as the president in 1979. This made Hussein the president of the republic,
secretary general of the Baath Party, chairman of the Revolutionary Command
Council, and commander in chief of the armed forces. [10]

One of Hussein’s major goals for
the country was to strengthen the economy.
He introduced state sponsored industrial modernization programs that
created much popularity within the Iraqi people. He provided a greater distribution of wealth,
greater social mobility, an increased access to education and health care, and
the redistribution of land. These
programs brought great numbers of Iraqis to the Baath Party, including many
that had been strongly opposed to the central government.[11]

After the
consolidation of power by the Baath Party, they pursued their goal of spreading
their Pan-Arabic and Socialist philosophy across the Arab states. Between 1975 and 1979, Hussein worked with
the Shah of Iran to help ease long standing tensions that had been around since
the end of World War II. Hussein reached
out to improve relations with Saudi Arabia, Oman, and other Gulf kingdoms.

One of the
most important diplomatic opportunities that arose for Hussein was the signing
of the Camp David Accords in 1978. When
Egypt under the leadership of President Anwar Sadat signed the peace treaty
with Israel, this move alienated Egypt from the rest of the Arab world. This allowed Hussein and Iraq to play a larger
role in Arab affairs. He denounced the
Camp David Accords and imposed sanctions on Egypt. He ended his longstanding feud with Syrian
President Hafiz al Assad. He became the
first Iraqi head of state to visit Jordan in twenty years. This visit between Hussein and King Hussein
of Jordan allowed for Iraq to have access to the port of Aqabah.[12]

The Iran-Iraq War:

Before the
overthrow of the Shah in the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Saddam Hussein reached
out to the Shah to help mend tensions.
In March 1975, Hussein signed an agreement with the Shah that finally
settled the border dispute between the two nations that had not worked in 1937
or in 1969. Part of this agreement was
for the Shah to prevent subversive elements from crossing the border into
Iraq. The majority of the subversive
elements had been Kurds that Iraq had to contend with for the majority of the 1970s. Without the aid of Iran, the Kurds were
quickly rounded up by the Iraqi forces and eliminated.[13]

With the
Iranian Revolution, the peace agreement that had been in place between Iran and
Iraq seemed to have fallen apart.
Hussein saw the new Islamist regime as both an opportunity and a
threat. Hussein feared that the new Shi’a
regime would promote the Shi’a majority in Iraq to revolt and try to overthrow
Hussein’s regime. In July 1979 riots
broke out in the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala after the government to
allow the Ayatollah Baqir to lead a procession to Iran to congratulate
Khomeini.[14] Despite the fear of Shi’a uprisings, Iraq
sent their best wishes to Khomeini and the Iranian people on the establishment
of the Islamic Republic. Iraq invited
the first president of Iran, Mehdi Bazargan to improve bilateral relations, but
due to the rise of militant preaching by Khomeini, this caused the relationship
between the two nations to end.

Starting in
1980, after unsuccessful attempts by a Shi’a extremist group Ad Dawah to
assassinate high ranking Baath Party leaders, including the foreign minister
Tariq Aziz and minister of culture and information Latif Nayyif Jasim, Hussein
rounded up and deported members and executed the leader.[15]

The two
nations started border skirmishes in September 1980, which led to increased
hostility and eventual bombing raids on both sides. On September 23, Iraqi troops marched into
Iranian territory. The war that ensued
from Western sources seemed to be nothing more than the ancient Arab-Persian
feud that had been going on for centuries.
There was more to the war than just one old grudge. This war continued the Shi’a-Sunni conflict
and personal animosity between Hussein and Khomeini. In 1977, Khomeini was expelled from Iraq by
the Baath Party after spending fifteen years in Najaf. Khomeini felt that the Shi’as in the shrine
cities were being exploited by the Baath Party and vowed revenge.[16]

When Iraqi
military planners had gathered intelligence on the situation in Iran, they
believed that they could win a quick war.
Despite the population of Iran being much larger than Iraq, the Iraqi
military was much better equipped in terms of arms and mobile infantry. The weapons and tanks that the United States
had given Iran under the Shah had been left to rust, but the one place that the
Iraqis believed Iran had an advantage was their air force. The air force had some of the most
sophisticated aircraft that had been made in the United States. To prevent the Iranian air force from
mobilizing, the Iraqi air force launched massive bombing raids to destroy the
runways, fuel depots, and hangers.
Unfortunately for the Iraqis, the bombing raids did little to destroy
the Iranian air force due to the strength of the hangers to repel Iraqi
bombs.

Iraq
mobilized their nearly 200 thousand men, 2,200 tanks, and 450 airplanes and
launched a three front attack on Iran.[17] In the first few weeks the Iraqi army crushed
the Iranian army and captured major cities within Iran. The Iranian military command had been purged
and executed by the new regime and what remained was not well trained. Despite the inadequacies in the Iranian
military, they were able to keep the Iraqi army from reaching Tehran. After a counterattack failed to stop Iraqi
forces in 1981, they managed to push Iraqi troops back in 1982 and kept pushing
them back until 1984.

By the end
of 1984 after nearly four years of fighting a combined 550 thousand troops had
been killed or wounded. Between 1984 and
1987 the war turned into a war of attrition, where neither side managed to take
much ground and lost thousands of soldiers.
Fearing what either superpower would do, both the United States and the
Soviet Union sold arms and supplies to both sides. This allowed Hussein to create weapons that
had not been widely used since World War I.
Hussein created and used chemical and biological weapons and attached
them to bombs, shells, and rockets against the Iranian forces.

With increasing
pressure from the United Nations to end the war after reports that chemical and
biological weapons had been used. Iraq
made one final push to try and decisively end the war. From April to August 1988, Iraq launched
Operation Blessed Ramadan to finally end the war. The operation successfully pushed the Iranian
forces back, but failed to make a decisive blow. In August 1988, after eight years of
fighting, Iran and Iraq formally agreed to a ceasefire when Iran accepted UN
Security Council Resolution 598. The
estimates for the war included nearly one million dead, many thousands wounded,
and millions became refugees. Despite
the victory by Iraq, they failed to get many of issues that started the war
resolved.[18]